Finally! A Flying Car Could Go On Sale In 2017

It's the future promised to us by the Jetsons, "Back To The Future" and even as far back as Jules Verne: Finally after decades of dreaming and waiting, a company has plans to make a flying car commercially available to the public within 24 months.

Last year, Slovakian company AeroMobil unveiled its latest prototype of an elongated, road-ready vehicle with stowable wings that can navigate both city traffic and the airspace in between landings and take-offs from the world's airports. (Forbes contributor Federico Guerrini covered the reveal in Vienna in October; check it out for more details on the latest model known as the Aeromobil 3.0.) Then, this week at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Co-Founder and CEO Juraj Vaculik said that the company planned to move flying cars to market sooner than later.

"We are now scaling up quite fast, building the team, and the plan is that in 2017 we'll be able to announce... the first flying roadster," Vaculik told CNBC. "The point is not only to showcase that it's possible to marry together a plane and a car, but to really commercialize it."

Vaculik said he expects that the vehicle will initially appeal to luxury car fans and flight enthusiasts, and will have a price tag that also falls somewhere in between the latest offerings from Tesla Motors and a small plane of a "couple hundred thousand dollars."

The first commercially available model is expected to be a two-seater with a 435-mile range, take-off speed of 81 miles per hour, top air speed at around 124 miles per hour and an autopilot function.

Of course, when it comes to flying cars, the modus operandi often seems to be "hurry up and wait." American company Terrafugia also hopes to begin delivery of its own flying car model this year or next, something it originally hoped to achieve back in 2011.

Watch the latest prototype of the AeroMobil in action in the promotional video below:

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I've covered science, technology, the environment and politics for outlets including CNET, PC World, BYTE, Wired, AOL and NPR. I currently produce the Warm Regards podcast and I've written e-books on Android and Alaska.